


Momento Mori

by anathebookworm



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: A little, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bad Pranks, Blood and Gore, Butterfly Effect, F/M, Go play it, Minor Character Death, Pranks, Until Dawn AU, Wendigos, because no one can replace him, don't do this sort of stuff, love this game so much, nasty teens, or maybe not, the Stranger/Flamethrower Guy is here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 16:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10925952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anathebookworm/pseuds/anathebookworm
Summary: As a gift for finishing his sixth year at Hogwarts with top grades, Lucius and Narcissa allow Draco to go and spend a weekend at their newly acquired winter lodge in Canada. They are even okay with Draco taking his girlfriend, Hermione Granger, with him. As long as he invites some of his other friends as well, anyway.Astoria is determined that this weekend she'll manage to get Draco away from Hermione."Even inside the lodge, he could see her breath coming out from her mouth. Merlin, it was cold. Freezing. He imagined that Canada would be cold, but not like this."AKA THAT UNTIL DAWN AU NOBODY ASKED FOR.





	Momento Mori

**Author's Note:**

> Okaaaay, so, a few things first: I love Until Dawn almost more than I love my bed and pillow. Seriously. If you have a PS4, buy the game and go play it. If you don't, go to YouTube and watch an "everyone survives" gameplay. If you're anything like me, you'll probably be afraid and jumpy for a few months (I know windows still scare me because of that stupid scene with Mike and Jess) but it'll be 150% worth it. Minus the deaths you can't control. That part still pisses me off. #TheWashingtonsDeservedBetter
> 
> Also, Voldemort never happened here. Yeah, sure, the snakes and the gryffs still have issues with each other. But nothing major.
> 
> I was going to write this as Dramione being Josh/Sam, but thought better of it (because everyone knows how LOVELY and FAIR canon is with Josh.) Mike/Jess seemed safer, and Hermione still gets to be a final girl.
> 
> Also, I’ll be breaking this up into two chapters. “Prologue” + “One Year Later.” Obviously “Prologue” is going to be shorter.
> 
> IMPORTANT: the first thing we learn in Until Dawn is that most things are not set in stone. So I still didn't finish writing the next part because you guys are going to help. Yup. Until Dawn prides itself in being a game where "everyone can live or everyone can die." So you get to decide. After you finish reading, you tell me the characters you want to live and die. That should be obvious, but you can only choose between Hermione, Draco, Harry, Ron, Pansy, Ginny, Theo and Daphne. Choose as many as you want. Then tell me in a comment.

When Draco agreed to let the guys come to his family's lodge for the weekend, he wasn't exactly expecting this.

Sure, it was a celebration before their final year at Hogwarts. He got this. They all wanted to do crazy shit. Fine by him. But that was a little too much.

Daphne was pissed off drunk on the kitchen, snoring like a troll. They took turns poking her, but to no end.

But the worse, oh, the worse...was that Astoria refused to leave him alone. After some rather tiring hours of that, he complained about the girl with Pansy.

And what did she do?

She reunited everyone to start some sort of plan to "help him." She didn’t get to say much more than “teach Tori a lesson” before Granger grabbed his arm and dragged him to another room for privacy.

“Listen, I get what they want to do. But that’s just cruel. Surely you can see that?” Hermione pleaded with him, both of her hands falling to her hips. “I don’t like her—and never will—but _this_ isn’t the right way to solve things. What if it was _your_ little sister?”

“I don’t have a little sister.” He huffed, turning away from her. “Plus, if she was my sister, she wouldn’t be running after me like a dog.”

“Don’t say that!”

“I’m not trying to be nasty. But…but this is awful!” He pulled on the ends of his air, shaking his head. “What should I do if not listen to Pans? At least she’s trying to help.”

“And you think I’m not? All I’m trying to tell you is that there are other ways to solve this. For example—”

“Don’t patronize me, Granger!”

“—I could go and have a nice chat with Astoria.”

“Because that would be _so_ helpful. What would you do, anyway? Patronize her to tears? Make her run away into the blizzard?”

“Of course not!”

“Then I don’t see the brilliance behind your idea!”

She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. Even inside the lodge, he could see her breath coming out from her mouth. Merlin, it _was_ cold. Freezing. He imagined that Canada would be cold, but not like this.

Well, all the more reason to do whatever Pans wanted. After everything was settled, he and Granger could find a nice way to warm up. That is, if her idiotic friends didn’t follow them around. He should talk to Theo about that later—finding Potter and Weasley girlfriends.

Not that it meant they were friends or something. They weren’t.

But since they would have to be together, huddled up in a lodge for the entire weekend, well…

When Granger still refused to look at him properly, he tipped her chin up with two fingers. “Hey…” he tried. “I swear to Merlin I won’t do anything nasty.”

“But what Pansy said—”

“We don’t have to do _exactly_ what she said.”

“No? Then can I at least talk to Astoria first?”

“I…I don’t know if that’s going to work, honestly…” He scratched the back of his neck. “Didn’t you see what she was like? I don’t think she’s going to give up anytime soon.”

Granger sighed. “Okay. I get it. But…I’ll try and find her anyway. Don’t do anything until I’m back, alright?”

“Uh…alright?”

“Thanks,” she said with a huge, bright smile. Then she kissed him on the lips. Merlin! He wouldn’t ever get tired of seeing how okay she was with that. As soon as they finished Hogwarts, he would propose. He knew he would. To hell with their friends and his family. They would all get used to it. Eventually.

In fact, this travel to Canada was supposed to be _theirs_. But Mother didn’t think Father would take that very well, and suggested he invite Theo and Daphne and Pansy to tag along. Well, fine. But then Daphne’s little sister insisted on coming, too. And so did Potter and Weasley. To calm _her_ parents’ nerves about going to another country with a bunch of boys and girls she wasn’t friends with, Granger invited Lovegood and little Weasley.

Merlin’s balls, it couldn’t be messier. Could it?

The ten of them, all together for two bloody days. He just hoped it didn’t actually get bloody. They weren’t children anymore—and could perfectly be civil despite not standing each other. Well…unless Potter started bragging about Quidditch and his stupid, expensive broom.

“You know, I think there’s a creature out there,” Lovegood crept up on him and said.

“Morgana’s tits!” Draco jumped. “What are you trying to do? Kill me? Of course there are _creatures_ out there! We saw lots of deer. And Granger thinks she saw wolves, too.”

Potter, stupid Potter, said there was a centaur too. But what did Potter know?

“Oh, no.” Lovegood shook her head, her blond hair bouncing. “I don’t think it’s a creature from the Muggle world.”

“What, a…a werewolf, then?”

He hated werewolves. With everything he had.

Okay, he never actually came face to face with one, but Draco preferred it this way.

“No, I don’t think so. I didn’t see anything, but I felt it. It was looking at us earlier, too.”

He felt a shiver run down his entire body. Why in the world was he even listening to her anyway? Everyone knew Looney Lovegood spoke with imaginary creatures—this was clearly one of them. They were a bunch of wizards and witches, surely one of them would have realized if a magical creature was following them?

Yeah. They would have known.

Shrugging, he said, “Whatever you say, Lovegood. I’ll just find Pansy.”

“Stay away from the windows!” She warned. “They have eyes. White eyes.”

Merlin.

Why did Granger invite her? She was certainly trying to make him scared. And she was managing it.

He decided to ignore Lovegood for now—when he did _not_ ignore her, anyway?—and really find Pansy. She was probably in the hall, drinking with little Weasley. Merlin knew why the two of them hit it off like that, but they did.

When he found the two girls, they still had their glasses in hand. Hermione—thank heavens for her—had switched the Firewhiskey for Butterbeer some hours ago, and no one seemed to realize it yet. Sure, they were still drunk. But they weren’t getting any drunker.

“Hey, there you are!” Pansy waved with her free hand, jumping from the couch. He winced when he saw small drops from her drink spilling on his mother’s precious, recently acquired couch. His parents would kill him when they came to the lodge on Monday. “Listen up, Weasley and I have a plan.”

Ginny nodded excitedly, almost jumping from the couch as well. “We do!” she cheered.

Merlin, he wasn’t drunk enough for this.

“That’s awesome, Pans,” he said with a meek nod. “But Granger said she’d talk with Astoria first, and do whatever.”

“Granger doesn’t know shit,” Pansy huffed. “She’ll thank me in the morning, honestly. Just listen to this. It’s perfect. After we’re done, there’ll be no trouble anymore—and you and Granger can enjoy the rest of the weekend.”

“I…I don’t know about that,” Draco said, scratching the back of his neck. Hermione’s pleas still rang in his ears. He promised her he wouldn’t do anything nasty. Didn’t he? But…if Pansy and little Weasley were the ones doing it, then the nasty one wasn’t he. _Right?_

“C’mon,” Ginny whined. “Harry would understand. He’d know we’re only doing this because we care about ‘Mione. We’re looking out for her.”

Ouch. Using the Potter card now, are we? That was low. Even for a Weasley.

“Alright, alright. Let’s hear it,” he said with a huff.

“Marvelous!” Pansy clapped with a bright smile on her face. She reached behind her on the couch and thrust a handwritten note on his hand. “See, we wrote this. Weasley was brilliant, and she mimicked your handwriting. It’s quite good, isn’t it? I thought it was. Anyway, we’ll just leave it somewhere for Tori to find. Then you come in.”

“O-kay…”

_Hey, Tori. You looked bloody hot with that Armani top. But I bet you’d look even better without it. Next time the clock strikes, come to the only empty guest room. Second floor, third door on the left._

Then they signed it with his name. Draco couldn’t help but snort—because, really? Who would fall for such stupidity?

“What?” Pansy frowned. “It _was_ an Armani top. Daphne said she brought new clothes just to use this weekend.”

He felt something akin to guilt then, because obviously the girl had had a lot of trouble. But she knew he bloody loved Granger. They had been together since their fourth year at Hogwarts, and the entire school knew he’d propose once they graduated. Even Granger probably knew already—she was always ten steps ahead of him.

_What if she proposed first?_

He smiled at the random thought, but soon his grin died. If Astoria kept her little game, who knew what’d happen. What if she did something really terrible that would make Granger break up with him? Drive her so far away, he wouldn’t be able to reach her again? What if Astoria went to his parents and convinced them to set up a marriage arrangement or something?

Suddenly, it clicked. What little Weasley said was true—they really were looking out for Granger.

With his mind set, Draco nodded and returned the note to Pansy.

“Alright, I’m in,” he said. _I’m so sorry, Granger, but I have to do this. I promise to never ever do anything nasty again._ “What you ladies need me to do?”

Pansy clapped again before squeezing Ginny’s hand with a huge grin. “Not much, really. I think Tori is trying to wake Daph right now, so we just need to leave this note near the kitchen. Then we go wait in the guest room, as the note says.”

“Well, and then what?” He crossed his arms over his chest, raising both eyebrows.

“Weasley and I will wait there with you, of course. You just have to be there, lead Tori on a little. We’ll do the rest for you.”

“That’s it? But…what exactly are you going to do? Besides embarrass her to death?”

“You’ll see, hon. We girls always have a plan, and it’s no different this time. We’ll just teach her not to mess with out friends. Our very much _unavailable_ friends.”

There was something on the back of his mind then, saying that perhaps this was a bad idea after all. But he had to do it. It was for Granger. For their relationship. Plus, what could really happen?

“Okay. Let’s do this. The sooner, the better.”

Both girls jumped from the couch and linked arms with him.

#

Hermione trusted Draco, of course she did.

Most of the time she did, anyway.

Because there was that time she pleaded with him to be less of a prat with Harry because of the Yule Ball, and he didn’t listen. This led to such a mess, she didn’t even like to remember. In the end, she had to spend two days with him on the infirmary because he was turned into a ferret—an actual albino ferret, she couldn’t believe her eyes!—and wouldn’t turn human again, no matter what spells they tried.

Dumbledore had to call Newt Scamander to Hogwarts to help them. Worse, from what the gossip vine said, Mr. Scamander was in a second (third, fourth, who knew…) honeymoon with his husband, Percival Graves. That man scared her to tears—it was worse than when she saw Snape for the first time.

And all of it happened because Draco was pig-headed and didn’t listen to her. Why did he have to mock Harry for getting a “no” from Cho? Honestly.

Shaking her head to clear it from these useless thoughts, Hermione moved around the lodge—up and down the stairs more than once—to try and find Draco.

It was useless. She couldn’t find him—or even Ginny.

Harry and Ron went to sleep already, so maybe Ginny was with them.

She stepped in the kitchen to eye Theo Nott and Daphne Greengrass sleeping on the huge table, heads cushioned by their arms. If she had to admit it, she’d say they were cute together. Would be better if they weren’t passed out from drinking, though.

“Hi, Hermione!” Luna cheerfully greeted her, making her jump. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Hermione forced a smile and shook her head. “It’s alright, I’m just distracted. Have you seen Draco around?”

“Oh, Draco? No. Last time I saw him, you two just finished talking. I’m sorry.” Luna shrugged before putting a piece of paper in her hands. “But I found this, and it’s signed by him.”

Her eyes almost burgled out when she read the note. In fact, she had to read it three times for the words to sink. _Armani top? Hot? Tori?_

But then she saw how the calligraphy was a little odd. Too perfect. She had been passing notes with Draco since they were twelve, she knew exactly how his calligraphy progressed over time. Yeah, it looked like this had been written by him. But she knew it hadn’t.

The only person she knew who could mimick people’s calligraphy like this was Ginny. But why—

_Bloody hell!_

She tossed the note away and ran to the guest bedrooms, searching for her friends. Ginny was there when Pansy first mentioned her plan. They could very well be doing something right now, for all that she knew.

She told them to hold off, to leave the girl alone. Honestly! Yeah, Astoria was acting like a bitch, but _she_ could deal with that since the girl was chasing after _her_ boyfriend.

Just as Hermione reached the hall, Astoria came running down the stairs, crying her eyes out.

And without her oh, so bloody hot, Armani top.

Seconds after her came Draco, Pansy and Ginny.

“Tori, wait!” Pansy called, though she didn’t sound all that worried. “It was just a prank!”

“Can’t she take a joke?” Ginny muttered after Pansy.

Hermione didn’t waste any time going after them, but Astoria rushed out of the lodge, into the blizzard.

“What is everyone yelling about?” Ron mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Hermione wasn’t even sure when he and Harry woke up, let alone followed them outside. “Is that Greengrass?”

“What the hell, Draco?” Hermione punched his chest. “You told me you’d leave her alone!”

“I’m sorry!” He exclaimed, arms raised. “I didn’t think…didn’t think she’d run away. I’ll go after her—”

Hermione huffed. “Trust me, Malfoy, you’re probably the last person she wants to see right now.”

“I’ll go after her,” Luna offered with a smile, despite the situation. She already had warm clothes on, and rushed into the woods.

They all stood outside, not managing to look each other in the eye. Until Harry broke the silence with, “Okay, what the hell happened?”

“Astoria obviously can’t take a joke,” Ginny said with a shrug.

“We…Astoria kept following me around, making innuendos,” Draco started. “We thought she should know I wasn’t interested. Because I love Hermione. And…and…we invited her to a room, and made her strip. Pansy and little Weasley just…they just told her what everyone knows. That it’s pathetic to keep going after someone who isn’t interested.”

Hermione gasped, and slapped him again.

“Bloody hell,” Harry sighed. “We have to go after them.”

“No, we can’t go into the blizzard.” Pansy shook her head and gestured to the path Astoria and Luna took. “Look, their footprints already disappeared. We need another way to contact them.”

“A patronus!” Hermione exclaimed.

Harry beamed, and immediately cast one.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

They all remained unanswered.

(In the morning, when the Aurors finally started to answer their desperate calls, they were told both Astoria’s and Luna’s wands had been snapped in a half. Unfortunately, the last traces of their magic indicated that both had fallen down one of the cliffs, into the mines under the mountain.)

(They searched for days, weeks, until Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy decided they didn’t want Aurors on their mountain any longer.)

(Nothing but the wands was ever found.)

**Author's Note:**

> sorry. I don't agree with the prank, obviously. In fact, Hannah is one of my favorite characters in Until Dawn (Astoria is playing her role here), but it all had to happen. Sorry about Luna, too. Even more sorry when you learn what actually happened.
> 
> also, YAAAAS! I ship gramander. No regrets.


End file.
